Absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins and female adult incontinence articles that function to collect fluid discharged from a woman's vagina or urethra often include a deformed surface region and a colored region in the absorbent article.
A colored region on or below a top surface of an absorbent article that is visible through a topsheet can provide functional and perceptional advantages. The colored region can overcome a problem of unsightly staining during, for example, a woman's menstrual period. The colored region on a layer below the topsheet, which can be viewed through the topsheet, can also provide for a perception of depth and greater fluid storage capacity within the absorbent article. In addition, by including a colored region in the central portion of the absorbent article, manufacturers of absorbent articles may effectively teach consumers that the central portion of the absorbent article is where the fluid collected should reside.
Meanwhile, various fluid handling demands on different portions of an absorbent article, different physical interactions between portions of an absorbent article and portions of a wearer's body, and different moisture and chemical environments of different portions of a wearer's crotch region create unique needs for different regions of the topsheet. Some absorbent articles designed to have a topsheet with deformed regions that are arranged to provide fluid handling benefits where needed and/or skin comfort benefits where needed are, for example, disclosed in WO 10/17360; WO 10/17362; and WO 10/17351.
Provision of a colored region and/or deformed regions on a web has been carried out separately from an absorbent article fabrication.
In many cases to provide best functionality of absorbent articles, it is best to provide each step of the manufacturing process next to each other and in the right sequence so that one does not have issues with performance of the absorbent articles that could occur if made separately. For instance, formation of features in a topsheet far apart or in a different sequence may cause weakening of the topsheet structure, thereby causing tearing in use or during the manufacturing process. Further, separation of unit steps of feature formations may increase the possibility that some or many features closely co-located in a topsheet formed in different unit steps overlap which leads to increased aperture size which would cause rewet problems.
Accordingly, there is a need for a process which can provide zones of targeted performance, and colored regions in a high-speed continuous operation.